There was the Oranges good side, winning the first six, including a road victory over then-No. 1 Louisville. The rotten side was also on display, losing seven of the past 12 regular-season games to stumble into the postseason. And even an unexpected side, knocking off long-time nemesis Pittsburgh and Georgetown en route to the conference title game, where SU held a 15-point, second-half lead on Louisville before finally running out of gas.

With an inconsistent conference season in the rear-view mirror, SU can now fully concentrate on what it hopes will be a continuation of the good play in New York City with a long NCAA Tournament run.

The Orange, which earned the No. 4 seed in the East Region, are favored by 13 points to beat No. 13 Montana in a second-round game tonight in San Jose, Calif. But for a reminder that such games dont always go as planned, the players need only look back to a year ago when then No. 1 SU struggled to beat No. 16 UNC Asheville, 72-65, in Pittsburgh.

The next three weeks is how people judge your season, SU coach Jim Boeheim said. Everything else, your nonconference schedule and league schedule, is just preliminaries. We feel as if were coming into the NCAA in as positive a mind as weve been in awhile after what we did at the Big East Tournament. But you never know if that will carry over. Ive seen it go both ways.

For the players, the chance to compete against new opponents after slugging it out with Big East foes for 2 1/2 months is a relief.

The Big East teams know us so well, its tough to execute against them, SU senior forward James Southerland said. Now we get to play somebody we havent seen, who hasnt seen us, so its like starting the season all over.

Against Asheville, the sluggish Orange fell behind by four points at halftime and overcame a poor shooting effort (5-for-23 on 3-pointers) to advance, barely avoiding a top seeds initial loss to a No. 16.

Weve learned that you cant take anything for granted, said Southerland, who scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half of last years second-round game. Every game is going to be a battle because all of these teams are really good. You just have to focus on what you do best.

SU went on to beat Kansas State in the third round, and Wisconsin in the Sweet 16 before seeing its season end with a regional final loss to Ohio State in Boston.

Last year as the No. 1 seed I think we felt the pressure a little bit more, SU senior Brandon Triche said. But we always want to win, no matter where we are seeded. Being a fourth seed there might be a little less pressure because a lot of people dont expect us to do anything. We might even be underdogs at this point.

The Montana players dont want to hear about that scenario.

We know all about them because we see them on TV all the time, said junior guard Kareem Jamar, the Grizzlies leading scorer and rebounder. They are in the tournament every year and usually do well. Its going to take a tremendous performance for us to win. But we truly believe we can compete with them.

Montana coach Wayne Tinkle, in his seventh season, said his scouting report on the Orange is simple. They are long, athletic, physical and deep. But weve been smaller than a lot of our opponents this season, and were used to being not as talented or as quick. Our strength is playing as a team and making good decisions through good execution.

Triche said it all starts with Montanas guards. We have to stay in front of them because they have four guys who can really shoot.

The Grizzlies shoot nearly 39 percent on 3-pointers, with three players hitting more than 40 percent. Tinkle said if his team is going to have a chance at the upset, we must knock down some of those shots against their zone because were probably not going to get a lot going to the basket. But, we cant settle for bad shots because that kick-starts their transition game.

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